If America’s K-20 education system cannot improve the proficiency of its students and increase the number of high school diplomas and college degrees in the workforce, the personal income of American families will decline over the next 15 years. Such are the stakes as education increasingly becomes the source for America’s continued preeminence in the global economy in the years ahead. That said, income in many respects will be a symptom of larger systemic challenges, the long tail of which wraps around how, who and when we educate. As America’s workforce ages, its best educated group (predominantly white Caucasians) will retire in large numbers in the next decade, while the racial and ethnic groups with the lowest educational attainment will see the greatest increase in its numbers, doubling as a proportion of the workforce.
This white paper, written by the Center for Digital Education and underwritten by Gateway, Symantec, Toshiba, Verizon Business and Xerox, explores the key issues in the American education turning point, the trends shaping the future of American education and a vision for that future.
